Professor Saban: Hard to get read on 49ers’ read-option

And, as Nick Saban revealed today, several other NFL teams have hoofed it to Alabama to study how to stop the read-option after it was used so effectively by teams such as the 49ers last year.

Three months removed from his fourth national championship, Saban, a defensive maestro who flamed out as an NFL head coach, is likely a helpful professor for teams seeking guidance.

However, he noted teams might require a graduate-level course for a blueprint to stopping the 49ers. San Francisco, he said, keeps defenses off-balance by running read-option plays from an endless array of formations.

“I think the teams that do a really good job like the 49ers, they do it from multiple formation looks,” Saban said on ESPN, via ProFootballTalk. “So they make more defensive players have to understand how to do it, and I think that’s the biggest challenge that they have right now.”

“There are a lot of different looks, there are lot of different things to prepare for as a defensive coordinator and a defense,” Staley said. “There are a lot of different reads and it takes advantage of anybody that is out of position or not gap sound.”

Staley also pointed out something that often gets lost in the how-to-stop-the-read-option conversation: Colin Kaepernick was also effective as a traditional drop-back quarterback in 2012.

That is, even if teams get a blueprint on stopping the 49ers’ new-wave scheme, they aren’t guaranteed to stop their offense.

“We don’t run the Pistol offense 100 percent of the time,” Staley said. “It’s a wrinkle; it’s something that we do within our offense. You watch our games — we’re a power-running team still; we run the read-option as well with the Pistol.”